Chapter 13 The Crown

He glanced at the crown on the head of the Daxiong Great Hall's chief and said softly, "In the thirteenth year of the Jiajing era, Wang Kuang, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, returned to Nanjing after observing a three-year mourning period for his mother. He heard that there was a wealthy merchant named Wang Guan in Nanjing City.

"That Wang Guan possessed immense wealth, living in a luxurious mansion with painted doors and embroidered curtains. The mansion was resplendent with gold and jade, filled with countless wives and concubines, and attended by thousands of servants. He also maintained close relationships with high-ranking officials and nobles.

"Rumor had it that Wang Guan used the pretense of marrying concubines to raise dozens of young girls in his mansion. Every night, he held banquets in the mansion, allowing these concubines to spend the night with guests.

"And once a concubine became pregnant, Wang Guan would order them to take abortifacient medicine, and the stillborn fetuses would be taken to a Hidden Dead Angle within the Wang residence."

Li Ang pushed up his glasses and said faintly, "That room was an alchemy chamber."

"Alchemy?" Xing Hechou felt goosebumps erupt all over his skin and roared in a low voice, "Are you saying..."

"That's right. The *Guochao Xianzhenglu* records that Wang Guan, under the guidance of a Jianghu warlock named 'Red Belly,' refined the stillborn infants into elixirs that could prolong life and sold them."

Li Ang said, "Not only the fetuses aborted by the concubines in his mansion, but Wang Guan also ordered people to buy stillborn infants from the streets, and even bribed midwives who helped with childbirth and abortions to acquire dead infants."

"After collecting the evidence, Wang Kuang, the indignant Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, bypassed Shuntian Prefecture and directly arrested Wang Guan, intending to execute him."

"Unexpectedly, just as Wang Guan's crimes were confirmed and the people were celebrating, the nobles in Nanjing City rushed to Wang Kuang's residence, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, to plead for Wang Guan's life."

"It would have been one thing if these high-ranking officials and nobles had private dealings with Wang Guan on ordinary days, but under these circumstances, instead of severing ties with Wang Guan, they risked public condemnation to plead for him. It could only be because the nobles had been purchasing longevity pills made from dead infants from Wang Guan for many years."

"Wang Kuang, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, was upright and unyielding and had the support of minyi (the will of the people). He directly resisted the pressure and ordered Wang Guan, who was guilty of heinous crimes and caused widespread resentment among the people, to be executed by slow slicing. The people rejoiced."

"Did things end there? No. Wang Kuang, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, who was praised by the people, risked his own life to continue digging and expose Wang Guan's protective umbrella of powerful figures."

"Naturally, the resistance was unprecedented. This resistance not only came from the dense network of powerful relationships but also from a higher level of power."

"That was Zhu Houcong, the eleventh emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Shizong of Ming."

"Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Houcong, was known as the Taoist Emperor. He was obsessed with cultivating immortality. In order to seek longevity, he invited many alchemists and Taoists into the palace to make pills for him."

"In order to eat and drink dew like immortals, Zhu Houcong ordered palace maids to collect dew from banana leaves in the imperial garden at dawn and yunxi (swallow) it. Many palace maids collapsed from exhaustion, fell ill, and even died. Zhu Houcong even listened to the slander of alchemists and, according to the 'Red Lead Method,' collected the menstrual blood of palace maids and took it with medicinal powder."

"In order to make the palace maids' periods more vigorous, Zhu Houcong forced the palace maids to take drugs that could induce menstruation and bleeding, which lightly damaged the palace maids' bodies and heavily caused them to bleed to death."

"In the twenty-first year of Jiajing, the palace maids, unable to bear Zhu Houcong's cruelty, united and used yellow silk to strangle Jiajing's neck while he was asleep, and also stabbed Zhu Houcong with hairpins and簪 (hair clasps), known in history as the 'Renyin Palace Coup.'"

"The Renyin Palace Coup, which occurred in the twenty-first year of Jiajing, failed, and the space-time we are in now is the thirteenth year of Jiajing, just before Wang Kuang, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, ordered Wang Guan to be executed by slow slicing and destroy the production line of immortality pills made from infants in his mansion."

"Why can Wang Guan, who is clearly just a Shanxiao (mountain spirit), master the Spirit Gathering Array, which belongs exclusively to the Taoist inheritance?"

"Why could Daozhi, the evil master, easily escape from the Nanjing City execution ground where Taoist masters were hiding?"

"Why could Daozhi master simply change his vest to Wang Guan and easily make a comeback?"

"Because this Shanxiao has someone behind him. The immortality pills he makes from infants are for the benefit of both the powerful officials and nobles and Emperor Jiajing, Zhu Houcong. It is precisely because of Zhu Houcong's protection and secret support that Wang Guan can hold treasures and act recklessly, and even learn the orthodox inheritance from Taoism."

The heavy clouds covering the truth were finally scattered by great effort. Li Ang sighed, "Unfortunately, I realized it too late."

Before he could finish speaking, the woman named Hongniang in the Daxiong Great Hall screamed in horror, struggling to shake off Wang Guan's embrace and staggering away.

"Don't go."

Wang Guan smiled and hooked his finger.

A nameless demonic wind blew from outside the hall, lifting the curtain of the sedan outside the temple.

A quaint bronze Ding furnace was carried by the demonic wind from the sedan chair and landed in the center of the Daxiong Great Hall.

Hongniang was also swept up by the demonic wind and suspended above the Ding furnace.

"Help! Help!"

Hongniang's long skirt fluttered, and she cried out loudly. The demons in the hall laughed even more unscrupulously. Only the group of foxes with their families and two or three immature ghosts showed intolerance, turned their faces away, and dared not look at her.

"Everyone!"

Wang Guan stood up and said loudly, "I have obtained a new recipe from a Taoist predecessor. As long as you take an unborn infant that has not been contaminated by the mundane world, plus the blood of a hundred kinds of demons full of spiritual power, you can refine a mysterious elixir called 'Hundred Demon Pill.'"

"Eating it will allow ordinary people to increase their power by a hundred years. Even if it is eaten by transformed demons, it can greatly increase their cultivation."

"I was indeed attacked in the Buddhist pagoda just now, and the attacker is likely to be hiding among you. However, I am willing to let bygones be bygones and share the Hundred Demon Pill with you."

With that said, he opened the wooden box in his hand, and a visible, fragrant aroma rose into the air and drifted away with the wind, intoxicating the surrounding demons. In a trance, they only felt the demonic power in their bodies surging, just one step away from breaking through the obstacles of cultivation.

The Hundred Demon Pill lived up to its name.

Pa,

Wang Guan closed the wooden box and said with a smile, "As long as you are willing to donate a drop of blood all year round, I can continuously produce pills, mutually benefiting each other."

"What do you all think?"

The demons looked at each other and turned their heads to shout in unison, "Let Daoist Wang Guan arrange it!"

"Good!"

Wang Guan laughed loudly and said softly to Hongniang, "Niangzi (wife), I redeemed you from the Qinhuai brothel, that den of devils, and you said you were willing to do anything for me. Now, it's time for you to dedicate yourself."

With that said, Wang Guan waved his hand, and a gust of wind poured out from his fingertips, heading straight for Hongniang.

This claw was about to cut open Hongniang's abdomen and let the infant fall into the Ding furnace!

Zheng ————

A bronze Ji (halberd), shot out from the corner, as fast as a thunderbolt and as quick as lightning. With just one blow, it dispersed the gust of wind!

The Ji, with its remaining momentum undiminished, was deeply chiseled into the red beam of the Daxiong Great Hall. The demons looked back and looked at the corner.

"..."

Xing Hechou stood in place, still maintaining the posture of throwing the Ji.

"Captain," Wanli Fengdao knocked on his head and said distressedly, "You kept telling us to calm down, calm down."

"Hahaha," Xing Hechou straightened up with a smile, patted his palms heroically, and said, "No way, I can't stand it."

The square-faced strong man turned around and said sincerely and apologetically to everyone, "Sorry everyone, I've dragged you into this too."

"Not at all." Monk Hui Bing put his hands together and said with a smile, "If I don't go to hell, who will? Anyway, it's just dying for a righteous cause."

Liu Wudai silently drew his compound longbow and said calmly, "Let's begin."

"Hey, hey, hey," Li Ang sighed helplessly, took off his glasses, and put on a face-changing mask, "Your lines are so cool, it's hard for me to handle."

"So," Wang Guan floated up, his Taoist robe fluttering violently. He looked at the mission squad with a smile on his face, but his eyes were full of indifference, "Are you going to be my enemy?"

The patterns on Li Ang's mask changed and flowed continuously, eventually fixing into the appearance of Ultraman Tiga.

He tilted his head, and his cat-eye pupils reflected Wang Guan's youthful face and kind eyes, and said softly, "Monks are fools and can still be taught, but demons are ghosts and will surely become a disaster."